… and I don’t know why the media continue to give attention to claims about its influence on earthquakes & weather. Or at least, why they do so without applying a modicum of critical thinking.
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dishwashers of doom
I don’t know what worried me more about this article in The Registrar – the implication that my dishwasher & its fungal denizens might be out to get me (which I suppose could necessitate returning to Plan B: the Significant Other; after all, I do the cooking, so he can wash up!), or the rather piss-taking […]
Continue readingwhere do you find the ideas for your posts?
"Where do you find the ideas for your posts?" It’s a question I get asked reasonably often, by both colleagues & students. They probably think I bang on a bit in my answer, but it’s not as simple as a straightforward list 🙂
Continue readingplankton & philosophy – and critical thinking
Grant & I have stumbled across another NZ science blog, planktonandphilosophy (well, he did the stumbling & then pointed me there). We both particularly liked the excellent post on misreporting of statistics on armed bank robberies: if you took the headlines at face value, the number of armed heists soared last year. But this post […]
Continue readingastrology can help achieve pregnancy? um, really?
Over at Grant’s, a commenter on one of his posts noted that, in its ‘World News’ pages, the Dominion-Post included an article entitled: "Pioneering’ astrology analysis may help women get pregnant after IVF treatment has failed". The commenter said he’d nearly choked on his weetbix when he saw that, & I can sympathise. I’d like […]
Continue readingretail therapy better than s*x?
From the UK’s Telegraph (& via the NZ Herald) comes the attention-grabbing headline: ‘Finding a bargain feels as good as sex‘. Well, I’m a fan of a good bargain (mmmm, coats…) so of course I read on. And was, as usual with such headlines, disappointed.
Continue readingare octopuses really psychic?
If, like me, you enjoy soccer you’ll have been excitedly following the World Cup games. You will probably have caught some of the other hoop-la – including the ‘news’ coverage of an octopus that purportedly ‘predicted’ the outcome of games involving the German team. Now, I’ve been bemused by the coverage accorded to this cephalopod […]
Continue readinganother early hominin specimen, & other things to read
I’m catching up on my reading of other people’s blogs, so here are some interesting posts to share with you. At Laelaps Brian Switek has commented on the latest fossil hominin find. Dubbed ‘Kadanuumuu’ (or ‘Big Man’), this is a partial Australopithecus afarensis skeleton.Kadanuumuu was much larger than the more familiar (& more recent) ‘Lucy’, & because […]
Continue readingacupuncture & adenosine
A couple of days ago the morning paper carried a story about acupuncture. More specifically, a story saying that researchers had shown how acupuncture works to reduce pain. The study was done in mice (& so presumably used very small needles) & found that ‘needling’ was followed by release of adenosine, a substance which has […]
Continue readingmilk & health: there aren’t always two (equal) sides to a story
I had another learning experience down at the gym this afternoon. There I was, happily pedalling away on the exercycle (I believe in varying my cardio, otherwise it gets boring!) & reading a fitness magazine (what else?) when I came across an article on whether or not drinking/eating dairy products is bad for you.
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